When the Bough Breaks Information

When the Bough Breaks is a 2016 American psychological thriller film directed by Jon Cassar and written by Jack Olsen. The film stars Morris Chestnut, Regina Hall, Theo Rossi and Jaz Sinclair, and follows a woman who begins to develop a deadly crush on the husband of the couple she is surrogate mothering for.

Filming began on February 2, 2015 in New Orleans. The film was released on September 9, 2016, received generally negative reviews and grossed $30 million.

Plot summary

A married couple in their 40s, named John and Laura Taylor (Morris Chestnut and Regina Hall) desperately want to have a baby, but they are unable to have a lasting pregnancy. Laura had already suffered three miscarriages in the past years. After attempting all other options, the couple hire a beautiful young woman named Anna (Jaz Sinclair) who agrees to become a gestational surrogate mother for the Taylors.

After Anna has a doctor's appointment, her boyfriend, Mike, doesn't pick her up, causing Anna to go to John's job for a ride home. That night, Laura receives an emergency phone call from Anna. John drives to her house seeing the police. It is then revealed that Mike assaulted Anna, leaving her face bloody and bruised. The police suggest Anna finding a place to stay, and John offers for her to stay at the couple's house for the time being.

Everything seems fine for a while, until Anna starts to develop a fixation on John as the pregnancy moves further along. Anna's growing obsession interferes with what was a plan by her and her boyfriend, Mike, to scam the couple by demanding money. When Mike pushes Anna to demand money, she kills him.

Later at a doctors appointment, John calls Laura trying to get her to the appointment. John and Anna find out that their baby is a boy. Later, at work John gets a call from Anna saying that they should go out for lunch, he gets annoyed and Anna hangs up on him. John then avoids all of his calls from answer, later he answers and she says why is he lying to her about having appointments, Anna walks through his office door trying to seduce him, he sees his boss and gets Anna to leave the office.

Anna later reveals her feelings to John and becomes outraged when he says he doesn't feel the same way. John was able to calm Anna down but Anna ran out the guest house into house and picked up the knife. The police arrive and Anna lies and says her and John has sex every night then she leaves the house. Laura and John then find out that Anna ordered a drug that will end her pregnancy. Laura and John devise a plan to get their unborn baby back by making John act as if he returns Anna's feelings. They meet at the aquarium. As Anna thinks she is being played, she walks away. John stops her and kisses her forcefully, they then go up to the family lake house.

John returns home to Laura the next day. The plans works fine until Anna notices the two embracing each other. Anna leaves John a voicemail claiming the baby's coming. John leaves to go to the hospital while Laura stays home.

Anna kills the family cat and then hits Laura in the head with a lamp, knocking her out but goes into labor. While in the hospital they discover that Anna has fled to the family lake-house with the baby. John manages to get the baby but Anna wakes up and a fight breaks out between the two of them. John throws her onto a cabinet which knocks her unconscious. John goes outside and Laura places the baby in the car. When Laura turns on the lights she sees Anna standing in front with a shotgun. Anna shoots at the car and misses but hits the window. Laura runs over Anna with her car, killing her.

The morning after, Laura, the baby and John are sitting inside the Lake house. They hear the police arrive and John turns to Laura and says "It's going to be okay."

Cast

• Morris Chestnut as John Taylor
• Regina Hall as Laura Taylor
• Jaz Sinclair as Anna Walsh / Anna Devost
• Theo Rossi as Mike Mitchell
• Romany Malco as Todd Decker
• Michael K. Williams as Roland White
• Glenn Morshower as Martin Cooper
• GiGi Erneta as Dr. Grace Park

Production

On October 29, 2014, Sony's Screen Gems hired Jon Cassar to direct When the Bough Breaks, which Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne were producing. On November 18, 2014, Morris Chestnut and Regina Hall were cast to play the lead roles. On December 16, 2014, Jaz Sinclair signed on to co-star. On January 8, 2015, Theo Rossi was added to the film.

Filming

Production was first set to begin in late January 2015 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Filming began on February 2, 2015 in New Orleans, and was confirmed by Screen Gems on February 11. Filming was taking place on St. Charles Avenue in early March, and was scheduled to end in mid-March 2015.

Release

On March 30, 2015, Screen Gems announced that the film was slated to be released on September 16, 2016. On April 13, 2016, Sony Pictures released the first trailer for the film. In May 2016, the release date was moved up to September 9, 2016.

Home media

When the Bough Breaks was released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment on Blu-ray and DVD on December 27, 2016, with a digital release on December 13, 2016.

Reception

Box office

In the United States, When the Bough Breaks was released on September 9, 2016, alongside The Disappointments Room, Sully and The Wild Life, with the studio projecting it to gross $10-12 million from 2,246 theaters in its opening weekend. Some publications, however, had the film opening to $16-20 million, with some going as high as $25 million. The film grossed $5.3 million on its first day and $15 million in its opening weekend, finishing second at the box office.

Critical response

When the Bough Breaks was heavily panned by critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 11%, based on 18 reviews, with an average rating of 3.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Shallow, clichd, and silly instead of suspenseful, When the Bough Breaks offers nothing domestic thriller fans haven't already seen before - and done far better." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 28 out of 100, based on 9 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.

Many critics compared When the Bough Breaks to made-for-television films typically produced by Lifetime. Neil Genzlinger of The New York Times criticized Jon Cassar's direction, suggesting that "Hollywood needs to give the reductive, crazy, sex-obsessed female character a permanent rest."

In a review for Rogerebert.com, Nick Allen criticized the film's premise as "morally tasteless," writing, "Despite the story"?s initially completely baffling but welcome focus on characters for a change, the movie is baffled by the requirement of motivation, instead wanting to honor ideas of obsession while finding a way to get some dead body insert shots into the mix."